A/N: Hello everyone! Here's chapter 2 for you, I'm also thinking of working on some other goosebumps stories as well so stay tuned for more. They will probably be oneshots more than anything else but hey! In a fandom this dry it's something ;3.
The Scariest Place on Earth
Chapter 2
The tapping of Emily's boots along the cobblestone path was drowned out by the sound of chatter and shrills screams of children and machinery. Everywhere she looked were crowds of kids in their own little groups looking at rides and games with critical eyes. Emily however didn't pay attention to them as she was searching for another exit because there had to be one somewhere. She wouldn't feel comfortable enjoying herself until she had a secure way out of this place.
It didn't cross her mind that the gates might open later in the day. That they closed just to spook kids just like everything else in the park, but something in her gut told her it was more than that.
Finally she saw a large gazebo with the bold words "Information" printed across the top. it was colored purple and green like most other Horrorland themed things seemed to be. With her objective in sight, Emily made a bee line through the hoards of people towards the Horror manning the desk. This one seemed to be female with long green hair and a crop top, horns stylized to blend in with her locks. The Horror looked bored out of her mind with her face resting on her hand and a general air, "Stay away form me." Emily didn't care as she projected the same vibe as well, and sauntered up to the help desk.
"Can I help you?" The Horror drawled, her voice deep and grating.
"Yeah, how can I get out of here?" Emily asked, her tone matching the condissention in the others voice.
The Horror raised a brow, yellow eyes appraising and shrewd.
"What? Want to go already?" The female monster mocked, "Well too bad, there only one gate and it an entrance only."
"Then... How are we supposed to leave?"
"You're not. Hope you like the park kid because you're not leaving any time soon." The Horror chuckled like she had just shared some sort of inside joke. Emily wasn't finding it funny. If this was an act to scare kids Emily wasn't sure if it was brilliant or irritating. How the hell would the park keep going if the kids never left?
Then again... Emily glanced around, there were quite a few attractions she had passed that said they were closed down for one reason or another. If no one got out of the park, it would make sense that no one would get around to repairing said rides. Sniffing in distaste, she decided to try again.
"Look my mom's expecting me back by eight, I need to know the way out."
"Oh, wanting to run to mommy huh?" The chuckle turned into a full blown laugh, "Man you're something. I'll tell you what, I'll give you this if you go away and stop wasting my time."
With that, the horror passed over purple and green Horrorland lanyard with a large pass clipped at the end. On the pass it had the silhouette of of a carnival with the image of a creepy clown looming over the words "Carnival of Screams!" On the back was a map of the area which Emily decided was admittedly useful. As she finished her perusal of the item she turned back to the horror only to find the shudders of the window drawn down. She wasn't going to get anymore information of out tat monster it seemed.
With a frown Emily put the necklace over her head, it was long and with the pass, it fell down to her stomach. The purple and green clashed horribly with her hot pink vest but there wasn't much to do about it. She vaguely remembered people coming back from Disneyland having something similar filled with pins. Perhaps there was a similar tradition around here?
As she walked away from the the gazebo intending on finding her wayward friend she began to notice that everyone had a lanyard so it was supposedly a park tradition. Most had one pass on them but as she walked by the Ghost Train, which was apparently closed due to haunting, she started seeing people with 2 or even 3 different items clipped to their lanyards. Each one had a different color and theme but no words that she could make out from snooping distance.
Checking pass once more and flipping to the back, she found the map rather unhelpful. It wasn't to scale that was for certain and the winding roads didn't seem to have a rhythm or reason to it, but perhaps that was because of the throngs of people that she was pushing through. Eventually she got stuck within a swarm of children that had come out of no where and was forced out of her desired path which was towards something that said "Vampire Village" on the map. It seemed as good a place as any to check for an exit as it was the back of the park.
"Should we try out the derby again?"
"Nah man, that game is rigged I swear!"
"I vote we go for the bumper cars!"
"Do you know how many tokens that takes?"
"Not more than the canyon and you went on that one 3 times."
"Yeah, and now I'm low, we're going to the wheel."
The conversations continued to flow around Emily as the kids rushed like water towards the river that seemed to run through the center of the park. As she finally felt the last of the crowed disperse around her, Emily was surprisingly barely ahead of where she started. That whole time it felt like she was moving forwards when in reality she couldn't have moved more than a couple feet. With a huff the girl shoved her hands in her pockets and intended to make off in the other direction towards the large stage set up in the center. Conveniently it was where no one else was heading and she could fast track her trip to the other side of the park. However as she was turning away a shrill voice cut through her and stopped her in her tracks.
"Where you going noodle arms?" The voice cackled from above her. Turning towards it she was stunned to find a 15 foot tall skeleton holding a silver bell in it's bony arms. Along it's spine were numbers and it giggled as it noticed her looking. Below the laughing skull was a horror dressed as a clown, he looked absolutely miserable with a big red nose and rainbow colored hair that contrasted badly with his green fur. As soon as he saw her looking he straitened up his back slightly and coughed into his hand.
"Want to play?" His voice was deep and guttural, reverberating in his chest in a type of growl. Emily was about to pass when the Skeleton spoke up again.
"Yeah! Come and test your strength on Dead Ringer!"
The skeletons high pitched voice was grating and it was even worse when it began to laugh.
"Don't be shy." The Horror rumbled, "There's no fright restriction for this one."
"Don't you mean height restriction?" Emily found herself saying before she could stop herself.
The Horror looked at her for a moment as if sizing her up before he chuckled.
"This'll be a good starter for you, only two tokens to play."
A refusal was on her lips, but before Emily could reply the irritating skeleton had to open it's jaws again.
"Hey everyone! Come look at this were-wuss over here! Too scared to play a game with little ol' me." Surprisingly, that actually got the attention of quite a few people who started looking over towards the attraction and began staring at her. Emily felt heat creep up in her cheeks as she saw them begin to whisper to each other and point in her direction. If the stupid skeleton wanted to embarrass her it was surely doing a good job of that. Ducking her head down into the collar of her vest, Emily tried to creep away from the now growing crowed without much success. More people seemed to come the bigger the crowed got as if curious and merely drawn by the excitement of something happening. Finally the dark haired girl could take no more and she stomped her foot down.
"You want me to take you on? Fine!" She shouted up at the grinning cadaver. That just tickled the skeleton pink and it started howling in laughter as Emily stepped up to the Horror, fishing two tokens out of her pocket and slapping them into the awaiting palm.
"Oooo, Look at this girl, all macho." The skull teased as Emily picked up the hammer.
With a mighty swing over her head she slammed down as hard as she could on anvil. The meter shot up and stopped at the number 3 before falling back down to the bottom.
"Three? Mummy's boy!" The obnoxious skeleton howled as Emily's face burned brighter red.
"I'm just getting started!" She shouted back up at the darned thing. She tossed two more tokens at the Horror attendant who caught them swiftly and was looking a little too smug for her tastes, though that might have been her imagination.
This time she wound up, putting her back into the swing as she slammed down on the target. The meter once again shot upwards and stopped at a seven before falling once more down to earth.
"Seven? Grave-Clobber!" The skull rang out and Emily could hear a few "Ooo's" from the crowed. She didn't' know what that meant but what she did know was that she wasn't done. She was going to smash the deranged skull to bits. She tossed a few more coins at the Horror who was approaching here and was started by the surprise tokens. Hesitantly he backed off as Emily began to swing the hammer round and around her body, gaining momentum and pooling all of her anger and embarrassment in to the swing and smashed down on the evil once more. The meter skyrocketed from the force of the swing and hit the skull in the underside of the chin, knocking the skull clean off!
"TEN, DEAD RINGER!" The skeleton screamed loudly so that Emily was sure that everyone in the carnival of screams could hear it.
The skull landed on the bell in the skeletons hands before it slid back on to the spinal column that made up the meter.
"Wow, you're strong!" The game proclaimed and yet somehow the tone was still mocking. Emily trembled from adrenaline but didn't have anymore energy to fight with the stupid game. After all she had just won, vaguely she wondered what her prize would be.
Her thoughts were derailed however by the sudden burst of cheering and she realized it was the crowed she had managed to gather around her. A few of the kids were still whispering but it seemed more excited and less malicious. Out of everyone in the crowed who was going nuts and excitedly talking to each other she caught the sight of a strange girl. Out of everyone she seemed the most calm and was gazing at Emily with an odd look that the young girl couldn't quite decipher. The other girl had bronze colored hair pulled back into a pony tail and wore a large green windbreaker that hid most of her body. Her eyes were the same chocolate brown as Emily's but unlike her's, this other girl had something old in them. As if she had seen just a bit too much, experienced one too many things.
"Not bad for you're first time." A familiar deep voice rumbled beside her breaking her eye contact with the strange girl. Emily had been so entranced that she actually jumped a little at the intrusion. A paw came down on her shoulder to stead her and the clown Horror held out the other and dropped a few things into the girls awaiting hands. Looking down, she noticed that she was given three coins about the size of a half dollar all different colors. There was a bronze, silver and gold one with the image of a skull etched into the surface.
"What are these?" Emily asked, examining them critically in the light of midday sun.
"Frights," The Horror explained. "The more frights you have the more rides you can go on and the more places in the park you can visit."
"Oh," She replied, blinking away from the shiny new coins. What a weird system, she thought. To have to win games and to be able to go on other rides and enter other places of the park? What did it prove? What was the purpose? As Emily walked away from the ride and through the slowly thinning crowed of people, Emily wasn't sure she would get the answer.
A/N: Feedback welcome!